Shared Governance – A subcommittee of Council will undertake a thoughtful review of faculty concerns regarding governance. The goal is to identify significant issues with faculty governance, shared governance, and faculty role as advisory to the administration. The subcommittee will provide a report to Council including recommendations regarding future actions.
Standing Committee Review – Council will be more intentional about using year end committee reports to provide committees with explicit charges from Council to explore and make recommendations regarding particular issues.
Clerical Support – Complete work begun last year to identify support needs for academic departments/programs.
Timing of Evaluations including evaluations of Department Chairs and academic administrators. This may involve some changes to deadlines and work to improve the evaluation system, including how such evaluations are and should be used.
Salary Issues – Continue work on improving faculty salaries and examine benefit issues.
Adjunct/Limited Term Faculty Issues – Conclude discussion on adjunct salaries based on the report currently under review by the Provost. Finalize position on benefits. Consider the following concerns regarding adjunct faculty: the current evaluation system, adjunct involvement in campus life, and the 4-year term limit. Consider the best way to continue to monitor/address these issues.
Continue to improve communication between the Faculty and the Administration. Among the concerns here are the definition of associate dean roles, faculty involvement in administrative appointment and promotion processes, transparency of administrative decisions that affect faculty.
Improve the operation of Council –Create a screening subcommittee to research issues raised by faculty, improve written documentation, formalize the process for requesting information from the administration, and improve faculty meetings.
Continue to monitor attention to diversity and consider how Council and the faculty might have more impact.